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Years of waiting…
Waiting for years and having to spend thousands of dollars to get the documents that would allow them to benefit from working in the formal economy is the daily reality for most Congolese entrepreneurs. The process of formalization requires registering with multiple public agencies and obtaining a national identification number and a tax number, a process only available in a handful of locations. On top of the official fees to formalize, there are often additional expensive facilitation fees charged by intermediaries that operate due to the lack of One-Stop Shop for Business Creation (GUCE) offices across the country.
In provincial cities with poor infrastructure or no permanent GUCE office, entrepreneurs have to travel thousands of kilometers to economic hubs like Lubumbashi or Kinshasa, or resort to expensive intermediaries. These options are beyond the means of most entrepreneurs. Therefore, the vast majority of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) were blocked from services and opportunities such as opening corporate bank accounts or biding on public tenders.Followed by hours of progress
The World Bank and the TRANSFORME Project recognized this crucial hurdle. In Bunia, Kananga, and Mbuji-Mayi, transformative and innovative support has recently been provided through the deployment of mobile “caravan” services. The caravan services are temporary mobilization of Kinshasa-based GUCE staff in these three cities, backed by an extensive information campaign.
Organized with the support of the TRANSFORME Project, this operation is a temporary solution to help formalize MSMEs. The objective was to make the virtually inaccessible, immediately available through mobile GUCE services. Lines of motivated entrepreneurs formed, and the caravan operation enabled the formalization of 4,613 MSMEs: 1,425 in Mbuji-Mayi and 1,565 in Kananga in April and July 2025, plus 1,623 in Bunia in November 2025.
As noted by Gedeon Mulumba, Provincial Director of GUCE in the Kasai Oriental, “With the caravan services, we are able to process old applications that have been pending since 2021 and register new companies in a single day.” The mobile units brought the public services directly to the applicants, reducing processes that previously took months into operations completed in a matter of hours.
Ms. Miemba, a business owner in Mbuji-Mayi, explained that “Formalization helps [them] to develop properly, to be administratively in order, and even to access financing.” Formalization is also a prerequisite for entrepreneurs to access grants and other forms of support provided by TRANSFORME and other development projects. Furthermore, it was also the long-awaited opportunity to step out of the economic shadows, operate openly, and access the attractive, structured markets previously closed to them.
From papers to prosperity
The impact of formalization is both immediate and enduring. For businesses, it enables access to finance (e.g., opening business bank accounts and obtaining formal financing), market opportunities(e.g., participating in calls for tenders and export markets) and legal security (e.g., legal protection and attracting partners or investors). The potential benefits for the DRC are also clear: strengthening the administrative framework enables SMEs to develop, creating jobs, and broadening the tax base.
The most compelling proof of this intervention's value is the human reaction of entrepreneurs. More than one tear of joy came out during these GUCE caravan sessions. For entrepreneurs who have spent long years building enterprises without official recognition, these documents represent the end to years of waiting and the beginning of a promising, recognized, and more secure administrative status.
This temporary support responds to the local demand by entrepreneurs to formalize and helps to rebuild trust between the government and businesses. In parallel, the government is also working with the support of TRANSFORME on a long-term structural solution: online registration for everyone, regardless of location. Formalization is a crucial prerequisite for MSMEs to access multiple opportunities, which in turn supports them to increase their revenues, create jobs, and boost the economy.
About TRANSFORME:
The $300 million Empowering Women Entrepreneurs and Upgrading MSMEs for Economic Transformation and Jobs in Democratic Republic of Congo Project, known as TRANSFORME, is aiming to formalize MSMEs by offering access to services that were previously virtually inaccessible. It builds on, and is scaling up, the approach of the previous DRC-SME Development and Growth (PADMPME) Project. PADMPME helped to formalize businesses, including through GUCE caravan services in the province of Kongo Central.
This feature was written by Zouhour Karray, Senior Private Sector Specialist, World Bank and Jan van Zoelen Cortes, Consultant, Entrepreneurship Expert, World Bank.
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